EVALUATION AND PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF DNA CONTENT AND OF MORPHOMETRIC PARAMETERS IN MALIGNANT MESOTHELIOMA USING DIGITAL IMAGE-ANALYSIS

Fifty-seven cases of malignant mesothelioma were analyzed for nuclear diameter, DNA content and ploidy-related parameters, using Feulgen sta ined paraffin sections with a digital imaging analysis system. Thirty cases had a mean nuclear diameter > 7 mu m and 31 cases were classifie d as near-diploid. A statistically significant correlation between sur vival and the mean nuclear diameter (P = 0.0006) and between survival and DNA index (P = 0.007) was obtained. For other DNA content paramete rs (proliferation index. 5c exceeding rate), only one of the two stati stical tests showed a significant correlation with survival while the other test was of borderline significance. In this malignant mesotheli oma population, the prognosis for patients with the epithelial type wa s better than for those with sarcomatous tumours (P = 0.01). In this p opulation of patients, about half of the malignant mesotheliomas were aneuploid. The mean nuclear diameter, DNA index analysis and prolifera tion index analysis of the tumour cells on Feulgen stained paraffin se ctions can he used as independent prognostic parameters.